Eight Years in Ceylon |
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accordingly acre animal animalcules appearance arrival Badulla ball bank beautiful beneath bird Bluebeard boar buck buffaloes Ceylon Cingalese cinnamon cocoa-nut coffee Colombo colony commenced coolies course crop cultivation dagoba deep deer Dimboola distance district drachms elephants England feet flavour forest formed fruit gneiss gold governor grass ground head heavy herd hills Hog's Back hounds hunting immense inches insect instinct island jungle Kandy killed lake land larvæ latter lemon grass length leopard low country manure Mauritius miles mountain natives natural nest never Newera Ellia pack Palliser palm passed patina plain population pounds produce ravines reason red deer rice rifle river road rock salt scent seen shooting shot side soil species sport spot supply surface tank thick thorny jungle tion tree variety village weight whole wild wind wonderful yards
Popular passages
Page 213 - And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
Page 88 - Adieu' once spoken, he sighs an eternal farewell to the shores of ' La belle France,' and with the natural light-heartedness of the nation, he settles cheerfully in a colony as his adopted country. He lays out his grounds with taste, and plants groves of exquisite fruit-trees, whose produce will, he hopes, be tasted by his children and grandchildren. Accordingly, in a French colony there is a tropical beauty in the cultivated trees and flowers which is seldom seen in our own possessions.
Page 146 - ... the westward. The wind howls over the high ridges, cutting the jungle with its keen edge, so that it remains as stunted brushwood, and the opaque screen of driving fog and drizzling rain is so dense that one feels convinced there is no sun visible within at least 100 miles. " There is a peculiar phenomenon, however, in this locality. When the weather described prevails at Newera Ellia, there is actually not one drop of rain within four miles of my house in the direction of Badulla. Dusty roads,...
Page 88 - ... for posterity in the colony. He rarely even plants a fruit-tree, hoping that his stay will not allow him to gather from it.
Page 11 - He therefore indulges in an imperialist, utilitarian reverie that is far removed from the picturesque: Why should this place lie idle? Why should this great tract of country in such a lovely climate be untenanted and uncultivated? How often I have stood upon the hills and asked myself this question when gazing over the wide extent of undulating forest and plain! How often I have thought of the thousands of starving wretches at home who here might earn a comfortable livelihood! And I have scanned...
Page 145 - June to November, the South-west Monsoon brings wind and mist across the Newera Ellia mountains. Clouds of white fog boil up from the Dimboola Valley, like the steam from a huge cauldron, and invade the Newera Ellia plain through the gaps in the mountains to the westward. The wind howls over the high ridges, cutting the jungle with its keen edge, so that it remains as stunted brushwood, and the opaque screen of driving fog and drizzling rain is so dense that one feels convinced there is no sun visible...
Page 148 - On the north, east and south-east of Newera Ellia, the sunshine is perpetual during the reign of the misty atmosphere, which the south-west monsoon drives upon the western side of the mountains. Thus, there is always an escape open from the wet season at Newera Ellia, by a short walk of three or four miles.
Page 146 - ... their mad course upon its crest and curl in sudden impotence around the craggy summits. The deep ravine formed by an opposite mountain is filled with the vanquished mist, which sinks powerless in its dark gorge ; and the bright sun, shining from the east, spreads a perpetual rainbow upon the gauze-like cloud of fog which settles in the deep hollow. " This is exceedingly beautiful. The perfect circle of the rainbow stands like a fairy spell in the giddy depth of the hollow, and seems to forbid...